The
concept of panopticism refers to the social theory of surveillance, where
subjects are observed. According to Michael Foucault, how developed the theory
of panopticism, it is a kind of an experiment conducted by the authority on its
employees and prisoners, but monitoring them and their deeds continuously
JeremyBentham was the first to propose the concept of a panopticon when he proposed
an observation tower inside a building to monitor the prisoners inside their
cell walls with the purpose of increasing the security by facilitating more
effective surveillance.
The fundamental role of panoptics is to pave the way for a transparent society
where everyone would be watched in order to prevent them from being unlawful,
unethical and immoral. It is often seen that people tend to put on their best behaviors
when they are aware that they are being watched and will be held accountable
for their mistakes. Hence panopticism provides an incentive to do well, and do
the right things.
An
example of this is the plenty of CCTV cameras around the workplace as well as
social establishments, which have been designed to specifically discourage
criminal activities. However, as encouraging and positive it looks, a
transparent society created by panoptics has its downside. The challenges posed
towards privacy and security is immense. The advent of digital devices such as
object recognition, person recognition, biometrics, sensors are readily
available nowadays and spying on others are easier than ever.
As
pointed out by David Brin, due to this transparency, it has become harder than
ever to main secrecy where necessary. An example of this is the case of WIKI LEAKS where documents relating to
national security were released on the web with the help of panopticism theory,
which almost resulted in a civil war. (Bateson et al., 2006)
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